This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, click the "Reprints" link at the bottom of any article.

November 27, 2013

ETF Assets Jump More Than 30% Over Past Year to $1.6 Trillion

The great majority of those assets were in domestic equity funds; mutual fund assets grow at much slower pace

The Investment Company Institute announced Wednesday that assets in exchange-traded funds reached $1.6 trillion as of October, an increase of more than 30% over the $1.2 trillion in ETF assets counted as of October 2012. The great majority of those assets were in domestic equity funds — $972 billion — up from $733 billion as of October 2012, though assets in global and international equity ETFs increased even more on a percentage basis over the past year, from $295 billion to $392 billion.

In October 2013 alone, ETF assets rose $72 billion, or 4.7%, ICI reported, and the value of all ETF shares issued exceeded that of shares redeemed by $25.4 billion. In October 2012, the value of all ETF shares issued exceeded that of shares redeemed by only $1.89 billion.

As for mutual fund assets, ICI reported Nov. 26 that they increased by only $332 billion, or 2.3%, from October 2012 through October 2013, to a total of $14.63 trillion. Assets in stock mutual funds grew 4% to $7.40 trillion over the past year, while taxable bond fund assets grew only by 0.7%, muni bond funds fell 0.3% and both taxable and tax-free money market funds’ assets decreased.

In October 2013, long-term mutual funds—stock, bond and hybrid funds—saw net flows of $10.7 billion, compared to outflows of $4.9 billion in September 2013. However, bond funds and money market funds both saw outflows during the month: bond funds saw an outflow of $15.58 billion in October, compared to an outflow of $11.58 billion in September. Money market funds had an outflow of $12.12 billion in October, compared with an inflow of $45.71 billion in September.

Sign up now—it's Free!

Sponsor Showcase

ThinkAdvisor's TechCenter is an educational resource designed to give you a competitive edge by keeping you abreast of new tech innovations and need-to-know information that can be applied to your business.

Featured Video

At Prudential Advisors, we're dedicated to helping all our clients get on the path to achieve their goals."Prudential Advisors" is a brand name of the Prudential Life Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries